Hotel Cuba

A Novel

By: Aaron Hamburger

Narrated by: Marie Hoffman

“Deeply moving, compulsively readable, Hotel Cuba chronicles the early twentieth century immigrant experience with a profound understanding and crackling urgency I’ve not previously encountered. I could not put it down and I could not stop thinking about it long after I’d reached its stunning conclusion. In short: You need to read this book. Right now.”—Joanna Rakoff, bestselling author of My Salinger Year

“Thick with the humid air of a Havana summer night, rich with mesmerizing detail, Hotel Cuba will grab you and not let you go.”—Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Take My Hand, Balm and Wench

From the award-winning author of The View from Stalin's Head, a stunning novel about two sheltered Russian Jewish sisters, desperate to get to America to make a new life, who find themselves trapped in the sultry, hedonistic world of 1920s Havana.

Fleeing the chaos of World War I and the terror of the Soviet Revolution, practical, sensible Pearl Kahn and her lovestruck, impulsive younger sibling Frieda sail for America to join their sister in New York. But discriminatory new immigration laws bar their entry, and the young women are turned back at Ellis Island. With few options, Pearl and Frieda head for Havana, Cuba, convinced they will find a way to overcome this setback.

At first, life in big-city Prohibition-era Havana is overwhelming, like nothing Pearl and Frieda have ever experienced—or could have ever imagined in the rural shtetl where they grew up. As the sisters begin to adjust, their plans for going to America together become complicated. Frieda falls for the not-so-dreamy man of her dreams while Pearl’s life opens up unexpectedly, offering her a taste of freedom and heady romance, and an opportunity to build a future on her own terms. Though to do so, she must confront her past and the shame she has long carried.

A heartbreaking, epic family story, Hotel Cuba explores the profound courage of two women displaced from their home who strive to create a new future in an enticing and dangerous world far different from anything they have ever known.

Excellent

So well written. Will there be another to continue or finish. I felt left hanging!

Historical references

Speed up the audio reading a bit to enjoy more. Wasn’t in love with the ending. Too predictable. Loved the early Cuban and New York descriptions.

Outstanding story! Highly recommend.

I loved this book (audiobook) so much. It's now on the top of my 2023 favorites list!!

Inspired by his family's experience, this is historical fiction at its very best. The attention to minute details throughout this book made it sing! Aaron captured the challenges, heartache, fear, joy, and hope that Jewish immigrants had as they fled the devastating and horrific antisemitism throughout Russia for a new life in America. Because of tight immigration laws, the journey brought Pearl and Frieda to Cuba, which was a stopover for many Jews. Although my family didn't immigrate this way, Pearl and Frieda could have been my family. Their voices are distinct and authentic.

This story needed to be told and Aaron was the perfect person to tell it.

I highly recommend this book and will be raving about whenever I can. Bravo, Aaron!

Incredible Story!

The book is amazing! Hotel Cuba was well written, engaging and thought provoking. I couldn’t put it down!

a great story

so much courage, cunning & character development. the colors, smells & sounds of the places explored in this journey were vibrant.